This application generally relates to data processing. This application, more particularly, relates to financial and database management and accessing and to electronic shopping.
Electronic, online shopping malls are known in the art. These online shopping malls provide access to multiple merchants offering goods and services. An online shopping mall benefits both the shopping customer and the merchant. When the customer shops the online shopping mall, the customer can conveniently access multiple merchants, usually from a single website, portal, or uniform resource locator. The customer need not individually search for each merchant. The merchant, too, benefits by aligning the business with other merchants who might have greater name recognition. The merchant also benefits from cross-linking the websites of the mall merchants.
A problem with the conventional electronic on-line shopping systems is that they fail to comprehend the deflationary potential of an organized group of merchants. The online merchants still conduct their online presence and business using conventional tactics and strategies, without taking into account the sales/inventory data of other merchants. What is needed is a new strategy that drives prices to their lowest point and, yet, allows each merchant to specialize and to thrive.